James A. Beverley is professor of Christianthought and ethics at Tyndale Seminary inToronto. He offers more analysis of New Agemovements in his book Religions A to Z (ThomasNelson, 2005). Find more of these columns atwww.faithtoday.ca/ReligionWatch.

One advantage of getting older is you can look back and see how things changed shape, where
predictions were wrong, when
opinions were right, and more fairly
assess events from the distance of
time. I’ve been thinking along these
lines in relation to the New Age
movement, now not so new.

While scholars actually trace the
New Age back to the rise of various
esoteric groups and leaders in the
18th and 19th centuries (Emanuel
Swedenborg, Theosophy, Christian
Science, New Thought, Swami
Vivekananda), the New Age is more
commonly linked to developments in
the West since the 1960s and 1970s.

A few readers might remember
hearing about the Findhorn community in Scotland (1962), Esalen
in California (1962), Werner Erhard’s Est (1971) or A Course in
Miracles in 1975. All of us who lived
through the musical Hair remember its line “This is the dawning of
the Age of Aquarius.” Believe it or
not, that was 1967. It would take
another two decades for New Age
to become a household term.

If any one moment and personepitomize the apex of New Age reli-gion, it would be Shirley MacLainein 1987. That year the American ac-tress made the cover of Time and herlife story Out on a Limb was featuredin a TV miniseries. She’d travelled along way from Baptist Sunday school(courtesy of her mother KathlynMacLean, who was raised Baptist inWolfville, N. S.) to the shores of thePacific, where the actress pro-claimed under the direction of herNew Age spiritual guide, “I am God.”With MacLaine you get all thecentral themes and practices ofNew Age spirituality – humans aredivine, karma, reincarnation,channeling, UFOs, use of crystals,astrology, Jesus went to India toreceive New Age teaching, unityof religions, morality as relativeand peace on planet Earth. WhileMacLaine has created some bumpsfor the New Age (most famouslywhen she swore at David Lettermanduring an interview in 1988), she isstill highly regarded in New Agecircles and in Hollywood.

Since her heyday we have seen a
long string of famous New Age
teachers: Jane Roberts, Neale Donald Walsch, Elizabeth Clare Prophet,
David Spangler, Ken Wilber, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra,
JZ Knight, Marilyn Ferguson, James
Redfield, Rhonda Byrne and Van-couver-based Eckhart Tolle. As I
look back at these leaders, four insights emerge in terms of the
Christian response to New Age.

First, on the error side, some
Christian writers hurt analysis by
mixing proper critique with sloppy
Bible prophecy theories. No, the
New Age did not usher in the return
of Jesus. Likewise, Satan did not
create a One World Church through
the New Age. Sadly, Christian prognostication about the future is often
as pathetic as New Age predictions.

Second, all Christian critics(from fundamentalist to evangelic-al and mainline) correctly recog-nized that New Age teachers offera fundamentally different gospeland a different Jesus than providedin Scripture. As nice and cozy asNew Age theories sound, this is aspiritually deadly paradigm onGod, the identity of Jesus, humanpersonhood, proper biblical inter-pretation, the way of salvation andproper moral teaching.(On the latter, people shouldhave abandoned MacLaine as aspiritual guide as soon as she de-fended her adultery with a Britishpolitician by claiming they used tobe lovers in a previous life.)

Third, New Age spirituality provides a perfect example for Christians to realize that what makes no
sense to us is viewed as incredible
and liberating truth for others.
Consider, for example, the New
Age obsession with channeling
spirits from another realm.

When you get a moment, askyour search engine to show you clipsof JZ Knight getting messages fromRamtha, a 35,000-year-old warriorfrom the lost city of Atlantis. I can’timagine Christians wanting to pay$1,000 to hear Ramtha speakthrough JZ at her headquarters inYelm, Washington. However, oureffectiveness in witness is directlyproportional to gentle truth bearing,especially to sincere believers.“Speak the truth in love.”Fourth, the New Age also showssomething incredible about Jesus. Itdoesn’t matter which New Ageteacher you read – Jesus is alwaysreferenced positively. It’s like the oldgospel song teaches, “There’s Some-thing About That Name.” Certainly,New Age teachers distort the iden-tity and teachings of Jesus – that isbeyond tragic – but let’s celebratethat there is at least a deep realiza-tion in New Age circles that Jesus isa precious gift to humanity. That isa foundation to build on. /FT